Taking Back Sunday's Adam Lazzara on Pittsburgh return, new album '152' and more

When Taking Back Sunday played here last August, a tornado just a few miles from the Four Chord Music Festival wreaked havoc with their plans.

“The festival got shut down, delayed, everybody seek shelter, that kind of thing,” singer Adam Lazzara said in a recent Zoom call. “So rather than playing the full set, we had to go out and we just did five or six songs acoustic, three of us. So it’ll be awesome to be the full band, like, hey, here’s the whole thing! … We get way louder.”

That made Lazzara eager to return to Pittsburgh, recalling fond memories of old shows at Club Laga in the early 2000s. The rock veterans open the next leg of their tour on July 24 with a show at Stage AE, and he is excited to showcase the band’s new album, “152,” with a proper production.

Calling himself “one of the luckiest guys that I know,” Lazzara considers the current shows a sign of the band’s evolution from the early days of touring in a Ford Windstar, or what he described as “a soccer mom van and a U-Haul trailer.”

“Every tour we go on, I’m always like, yo, can we build a spaceship and it’ll come down from the ceiling? And then there’s sparks too?” he said. “But this tour, we actually built a stage that we bring around with us. I’m just really very pleased with it.

“For a long time, I feel like — and there’s nothing wrong with this — but for a long time, we would just show up, play, leave. We didn’t bring a lot of stuff. So to do a tour this time around and to be bringing the thing and it’s a full production, so it just reflects back just how big of a deal ‘152’ is for us. And I’m really proud of that. Because I even see it in photos, when I look at the other shows and it makes me proud of us. It’s one of the things we talk about — wouldn’t it be so sick if we had steps and lights! — and then we never do it. But we did it. I’m excited for people to see it.”

Released last October, “152” is a reference to a road exit in North Carolina and has been an inside joke among the band and its friends for years.

“Making that record, it was a lot of ups and downs. In my mind, when I look back, I think it’s because we were pushing ourselves into this uncomfortable territory where we hadn’t really been,” Lazzara said. “When you do anything like that, or just even in everyday life, you’re trying new things, you’re going to have some anxiety about it. So there was a lot of that feeling. So then to be able to go out and be just kind of on the back of these songs and to be able to share those with people has been really amazing.”

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It had been seven years in between albums, after “Tidal Wave” dropped in 2016. The tour in support of that album was followed by a 20th anniversary trek in 2019.

“In February of 2020, we got back together and got into the studio and then March 2020, everything shuts down, so that just put a big hold on things,” he said. “But I think it was real necessary for us because we never would have taken a break like that on our own. We would have to have been forced, and we were. And I think we’re stronger for it, both personally and as a unit.”

Lazzara said the band’s longevity and technology have helped with the evolution of their songwriting over the years.

“Since we’ve been so fortunate to be writing songs together for so long, we’ve learned how to give each other the space that you need to let your ideas come to life, good or bad,” he said. “Something that’s really great now especially is the technology because you can record your rehearsals so easily.

“When we’re writing now, we use that as a tool because then rather than spending 45 minutes trying to explain like, no, like ‘dubba dubba chug’ — that’s a deep cut Beach Boys joke — but rather than having to to do that, you can just play through and then listen back immediately and if something’s off, you could be like, ‘Oh this is close to what I was thinking, but see this here, can we change?’ So having those tools, it’s the first time we really leaned into that, and it was extremely helpful for us.”

With a mix of radio-friendly songs and pop-punk anthems, the band put an extra focus on the songs of “152.” In essence, they wanted to know if their songs, stripped down to just the guitar, would still stand up.

”In a lot of pop music, regardless of if you like the artist or not, nine times out of 10, you take a guitar and you sit just you and a guitar and you play it and hear the song for what it is, like no eyes involved, nine times out of 10, they’re really good songs,” he said with a laugh. “So I think that that’s the test, and that’s what we’re chasing is just good songs.

“So I think we get real close, and then we just hope that everyone else thinks that too,” he added with a laugh. “Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.”

While it’s been almost nine months since the album released, Lazzara said the meaning of some songs are still evolving, like “Lightbringer,” for example.

“At the time, I thought I was chasing this one certain feeling and then we were listening back, we were all together and we’re listening back at this house we rented, and I realized in that moment — and this is before the record was out — I was like, oh my god, that’s not about that at all, this is about (something else),” he said. “And then as we’ve been playing it live on this tour, it’s like I’m realizing, wait a minute, that’s not what I was talking about. I was talking about this other situation.

“So like these new things are starting to (pop up), which I think is one of the coolest things just about making anything, being able to surprise yourself because it doesn’t always happen. But when it does, it feels so good. And because it’s like magic, there’s some sleight of hand you’re playing on yourself. And then through seeing the trick, you’re also learning more about yourself. And I think that’s incredible.”

Lyrics like “The problem isn’t that I’ve changed, the problem is that you’ve stayed the same” on “Keep Going” — written by band founder/lead guitarist John Nolan — hit close to home for Lazzara.

“He brought that in, and I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ I was mad because he thought of it and I didn’t,” Lazzara said with a laugh.

“But it was coming from a place of love. But I immediately related to it, and I think it’s so true. … Again it’s like magic. It’s like, man, in one line, you’ve explained four to five different relationships I actively am really invested in right now in my life, this is insane. It’s awesome.”